Sources confirmed that the Centre's swift move to put a lid on Afzal Guru issue followed political clearance from Congress leadership.

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NEW DELHI: The hanging of Afzal Guru, the Parliament attack conspirator, on Saturday will help Congress's strategy to bolster its defence ahead of the 2014 battle in which it has to defend itself against the charge of non-performance on many fronts, including national security.

Although the tenure of UPA-II has not witnessed a major terror atrocity like the Mumbai attack, the inordinate delay in hanging Afzal had appeared as a soft spot for Congress that the BJP was set to exploit in the lead up to the 2014 elections. The execution in Tihar within three months of 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab's hanging shuts what could have been a crucial opening for the main Opposition likely to have commanded by Gujarat CM who has showcased his "tough-on-terror "credentials.

Government functionaries were at pains to decouple the hanging from political considerations. However, sources confirmed that the Centre's swift move to put a lid on Afzal issue followed political clearance from Congress leadership. The final nod came around 10 days ago: a timeframe that coincided with the movement of Afzal dossier.

BJP did not let go of the issue of a seven-year-lag in hanging since the Supreme Court confirmed the death penalty for Afzal, even as it welcomed the execution. However, the hanging deprives it of an emotive talking point. The saffron party used Afzal as the symbol of Congress's alleged pusillanimity over terror, and a validation of the charge that the Parliament attack conspirator was being kept alive because of "vote bank" considerations. Observers were quick to draw an analogy with the way demolition of Babri Masjid sapped the Ram temple movement of its emotional pull.

This poses a challenge to BJP's plan to attack Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde over his Hindu terror attack. It would have been a battle theme because the sub-text here was the charge that UPA has never been forthright in condemning other hues of terror. Shinde himself looked defensive, offering a clarification verging on regret just 48 hours ago. On Saturday, however, he appeared to be a transformed man, citing the decision of the "new home minister" to dress himself up as a tough counter-terror veteran.

The readiness to fortify its flanks against BJP's taunts of weakness was evident also when Congress prevailed over the government to up its ante against Pakistan after the beheading of an Indian soldier last month. Government's initial response to the provocation had appeared to see it just the latest of a series of similar incidents along the Line of Control (LoC) until party intervened to get it to adopt a tough posture.

His colleagues, information and broadcasting minister Manish Tiwari and Digvijaya Singh looked confident as they fended off BJP's charge of delay: a far cry from the days when they were forced to take shelter behind government's position that Afzal could not be hanged until the disposal of the cases of others on death row who had filed mercy petitions ahead of him. That the technicality routinely invoked did not stand in the way of hangings of Afzal and, early on, Kasab, points as much to a sense of urgency as a fresh approach.